


memories of the son

by mosaicos



Series: matsuoka [4]
Category: Free!
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-10
Updated: 2014-06-10
Packaged: 2018-02-04 03:50:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1764529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mosaicos/pseuds/mosaicos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Rin visits his father's grave, he can't help but feel angry. Not all the time—but some times that's the only feeling he gets, standing in front of the tomb with his family's name.</p>
            </blockquote>





	memories of the son

When Rin visits his father's grave, he can't help but feel angry. Not all the time—but some times that's the only feeling he gets, standing in front of the tomb with his family's name.

Matsuoka Tora.

 _What a stupid name_ , he starts with. He clicks his tongue and rubs the nape of his neck for no reason in particular. 

Rin doesn't hate his father. 

He hates the fact that he never got to know him; never got to really know him for more than old photographs and leftover belongings and hearsay from his great-uncle and mother. Some times Gou would try to bring up a memory of their father, but he knew she was making it up. _His_ father wasn't like that.

(He didn't want her memories to poison his own, taking away their value.)

"Hey, old man," is what he really starts with, setting down a new batch of incense sticks in front of the grave. Red eyebrows frown as he crouches and cleans up the accumulation of dirt at the base of the pillar. It makes him angry that he'll never hear a reaction to calling his father 'old man'; would he take that in stride?, would he hate it?, would Rin only be able to use it when he wanted to tease him, or when he wanted a favour? These are things he dwells on and never gets the answer for. "Australia sucked."

The statement comes so sudden, even to Rin, that he doesn't realise he's said it until it rings in his ears. He chokes, grimaces, and curls his hands into fists, looking down, still haunched over in front of the grave.

"It really sucked."

He hasn't even told this to his mother, who had actually asked him about it.

It makes him angry to constantly ask why his father had to be dead. Rin believed he kept him alive by following after the same dream, but some times that just wasn't enough. 

It isn't fair, he thinks reluctantly. Head bowed low with one fist on the base of the grave for balance, Rin hunches his back presses a firm grip against his face. _It isn't fair that all you get to see is me at my worst._ How a cold slab of stone can turn him into a crying baby is beyond him (except he knows exactly why).

Rin's family is wealthy. Their mother works as a professional, her family is-in itself-well-off, and the life insurance they had gotten from their father's death was tucked away into both his and Gou's savings accounts. Nothing was ever scarce; they could buy as many new notebooks for school as they wanted and afford their house to be remodelled from the bone if they so wished.

Rin would give all that up for his father to be alive.

(That way this wouldn't feel so much like a burden. That way he wouldn't feel like he's constantly drowning.)

" _Dad-_ "

Twilight slowly rolls back and allows for the dark, blue night skies of Iwatobi's coastline to take over, the surf of the waves never ending as they crash against the rocks.


End file.
